Etymology of the Belgian tribes

 

Etymology of the word Nervius (plural: Nervii) and Treverus (Treveri):

*Ner + *wie, *wier. Ner is in modern Dutch (Flemish) ‘neer’ or ‘neder’ = nether, lower, down. Wier, wie or weeg means 'woven panel, wall, house' [1]. The word is derived from ‘to weave’ and refers to an old building fashion. Houses were half-timbered and walls were made with the wattle-and-daub method. Many place-names in the Alsace (in the east of modern France) end with ‘-wihr’, the German way of writing (e.g. Riquewihr = ‘rich’ village). Wie is similar to Viromandwi [2]. So wier means house or by extension: hamlet. The word ‘Nervia’ means therefore: land of the lower villages. Compare with ‘the Netherlands’.

The meaning of the word Treveri is similar. *Tree + *wier. Tree is a word that survives in modern English: “a perennial plant having a trunk, bole or woody stem”. So: Treveria meant: land of the forest villages. Their alleged capital was the modern city of Trier in Germany. This place was actually a civitas, which was most probably founded just outside the traditional realm of the Treverians, again for political reasons. The Treverians are known to be the ancestors of the modern people of Luxemburg. Luxemburg is still a land of forests. The original land of the Treveri was bigger: It stretched way into modern Belgium and once comprised most of the east part of the modern Ardennes. The modern name Luxemburg (Letzeburg in the local tongue) means: 'Last Brugh'. From the point of view of the Germans, beyond the 'last brugh' (castle) began France.

All people south of the red line spoke para-Brythonic (Gaulish). The exact position of this language border is uncertain. Note that the coastline was different in these days.

 

Morini: The tribe's name Morini is derived from the PIE word *mori and either meant "sea" or "lake". The word occurs in most Proto-Indo-European languages either as *mori or *mari. (Compare: Armorica). The proto-Flemish word for "polder " is moer (plural: moeren). The modern French part of the region is called Les Moëres. The name Morini probably refers to salty marshes and not to the sea itself. The "-in" in Morini is a Germanic plural (today written '-en' like in children). Zosimus (5th century) described their city 'Bononia' (today: Boulogne-sur-Mer) as Germanic.

Menapii: *Meen + *ape. Du.: meen / Eng.: mean / Fr.: mesnil. Meen = main house, large, common house in a village where people gathered, justice was spoken, decisions proposed, discussed and voted. Ape = follower, low ranking farmer, tenant farmer, imitator (a German substrate word), later, because of imitator -> the animal. The name is generic. It refers to a (Celtic) social organization. This could mean that populations slightly south of the Rhine, mentioned by Strabo and Ptolemy, all had a similar social system and therefore were called Menapii also. Caesar described them as Germanic.

Eburoni: *Eibe + *boer. 'Eibe' means yew. It's the same word as if in French and ijf in Dutch. 'Boer' = farmer. Eburon = plural of Ebur or eibboer. During the late Roman Empire the region was called Taxandria from Latin: taxus = yew (also written as Toxandria). Yew grows reasonably well upon sandy soils. Most of the western part of the territory of the Eburoni is sandy. As the local farmers were poor, they supplemented their income by growing yew. Yew was and is the main sort of wood to make bows. The famous English longbow was made of yew. The yew which grows upon colder, sandy soils is of prime quality. Yew from Taxandria was famous in Gaul. Although the Gauls had their own yew, the Eburonian yew had a special para-Brythonic name: eburo. The Eburoni called themselves Tunger (Tungri) = "who speak our tongue". According to Caesar: Germanic.

Aduatuci : probably At + water+dwellers. "people who live next to the water (= valleys of Sambre and Meuse)". According to Caesar: Germanic.

Condrusi : etymology unknown, but maybe: "high valley people" from *kom, compare with *comb (U-shaped valley) in Britain, as they lived upon higher ground bordering the Sambre and Meuse, close to the 'deep-valley' dwellers, the Aduatuci.

Atrebates : *bat probably means house. The word is related to the ancient meaning of 'bath' and 'to bathe' = keeping warm. "Atre" was interpreted as 'black', ('ater' : Latin = black) although this is unlikely. An other possibility is 'hearth' in German plural 'hearther' so : "the houses with the (conspicuous? multiple? stone? ) chimneys, hearths". The tribe was most probably also mostly Germanic speaking.

Viromandui : probably 'were' + 'man' + 'wier'. 'Were' like in werewolf = man-like, strong (compare Latin : vir). 'Man' = humans. 'Wier', 'weeg' = panel, wall, house, village (from to weave) . The 'd' is inserted to facilitate pronounciation. So: "brave men villagers" or "Belligerents". Fought together with the Nervians against Caesar.

Remi, Suessiones, Bellovaci , Belgian-Gaulish tribes: etymology unknown. We have very little direct evidence of the para-Brythonic (Gaulish) language. Remark that the name of some of them like 'Suessiones' could be of German origin. Place-name studies have revealed that the language border during the early Bronze Age must have been much closer to the Seine, especially the lower Seine.